In exploring, we’ll start somewhere reasonably accessible and we’ll do a few courses before we begin to read his major work A Process Model.

This blog will be a place to present some commentary, and ideas, suggestions, exercises, meditations, extra reading, and so on, for the group. I will try to keep in mind that this site can serve as an introduction to others, too; because we have reached our maximum number of people for the online group, for this first stage of the journey.

TO BEGIN
Gene was asked to present the keynote speech at the Psychology of Trust and Feeling Conference at Stony Brook Manhattan, in November of 2006. His talk was entitled: In Having More Than One Shape, the Truth is More, But It Isn’t a Shape.
You’ll find the transcript and the audio, here.

For a group of people who haven’t read any Gendlin, the advantages of starting with this short text are:
– the talk shows us why philosophy matters to him;
– he introduces a number of terms which are core to his philosophy;
– being a talk, it gives a feel for his personal style; and,
– there’s an audio version, if you would like to listen, as well.

Even though it’s a kind of ‘introducing Gene’ place to start, it’s nevertheless meaty. We’ll not rush. There’ll be time to absorb what he’s saying, and to sense the implications. We’ll read using his contemplative practice of Focusing. This is a nourishing ‘study for the body’ approach.

WHERE, THEN?
We’ll see what we need after that. What occurs in the first course might suggest a paper of his; or, as I first imagined, we might proceed to read his short book Thinking Beyond Patterns: Body, Language, and Situations.

For those who wish to read more, we could then read his first major work, Experiencing and the Creation of Meaning. When we’ve finished that, we’ll read the extraordinary work A Process Model.

A very good summary of Eugene T. Gendlin’s Philosophy of the Implicit can be found on Rob Parker’s ‘Life Forward’ site. I want to take this opportunity to thank Rob for his patient mentorship over the years, and to recommend his courses in The Philosophy of the Implicit.